02 March 2005

At issue in
this case is whether the state may execute capital defendants who were
between the ages of 16 and 18 when they committed murder. The Court
upheld the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty under these
circumstances in 1989. This brief argues that not only has a
constitutionally significant consensus against the juvenile death
penalty developed since then, but also that imposition of the juvenile
death penalty reflects and reinforces racial bias in the criminal
justice system.

19 January 2005

Over 300,000 people have died in Sudan's Darfur
region, a place the size of France. 2 million more have fled their
homes. In the first week of January, rebels and the government
signed a pact ending their 21 year long civil war. Please joinHuman Rights Watch's HRW Young Advocates and Fordham Law TONIGHT for a panel discussion.

Genocide in Darfur: Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, and the U.S. Response

Bercault will give a history and
slide presentation; Dicker and Rostow will discuss Sudan's moral, legal
and political landscapes. CQ will be curious to hear how oil interests continue to effect the region. The panel's experts will also discuss the ICC, International Criminal Court.

139 countries have signed the ICC's 1998 Rome Statute treaty and 97 countries, including the European Union, have ratified it. The US rather joined Iraq,
Libya, Yemen, Qatar, China and Israel in a 1998 vote against the document. In May 2002, Bush 'unsigned' the ICC treaty in a bid to protect his cabinet from the first international judicial
body capable of trying people for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

16 January 2005

139 countries have signed the ICC's - International Criminal Court's - 1998 Rome Statute treaty. 97 countries, including the European Union, have ratified it. The US rather joined Iraq,
Libya, Yemen, Qatar, China and Israel in a 1998 vote against the document. In May 2002, Bush 'unsigned' the ICC treaty in a bid to protect his cabinet from the first international judicial
body capable of trying people for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Not a mystery why, when so much of late has contravened international law. 1945 Allied tribunals in Nuremberg and Tokyo made it illegal for states to invade other countries. The
United Nations outlaws aggressive acts except authorized by
its Security Council. The Geneva Conventions illegalize torture of both detainees and 'unlawful combatants'.
Neither can be abused, deported or suffer 'outrages of personal
dignity;' all
have the right to a fair trial. Yet not two weeks after September 11th, Bush Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzalez wrote a memo to the president that poo-poo'd the Geneva Conventions as 'quaint'. He might have added inconvenient too the description: they outlaw torture of all Prisoners Of War whether in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo or Afghanistan. Gonzalez is notorious for a number of memos though, some dating back to his tenure in Texas where he oversaw a goodly number of then Governor Bush's 152 executions.

The Bush Administration seems to be pressuring signatores to sign an 'impunity agreement' called the Article 98 Agreements, to exempt the US from ICC law.
In December, Bush crippled
humanitarian, agricultural and democratic programs in 50 of the 139 countries that support ICC by withholding aid. Yet CQ finds reason to cheer:
Abu Ghraib's Charles Graner just landed 10 years in
military prison.

04 January 2005

The IMC's new director of international ops, Ellen Agler, wrote in transit to Indonesia:

The International Medical Corps (IMC US & IMC UK) has been working in Indonesia for a number of years, with a staff of almost 80 people rehabilitating hospitals, training medical professionals, and implementing programs to improve the health status of vulnerable populations in the poorest and most remote parts of Indonesia. IMC also has quite a history of disaster response in Indonesia. They provided services during the aftermath of the Bali discotheque bombing a couple of years ago as well as with the Jakarta bombing earlier this year. As part of these projects, they trained many medical personnel and government officials in disaster management. From initial conversations I have had with our team in Indonesia, many of those that IMC trained in disaster preparedness are now playing critical roles in the response to the Aceh crisis.

If you are at all inclined to support humanitarian efforts to deal with the aftermath of the Asia tsunami, I can attest that the IMC programs in Indonesia will be managed by a competent team and deliver top-notch emergency medical care. And I will be there to send reports from the front line on who is being helped and how. There have been announcements in the last day of funding promised by various governments – from the US to Australia and the European Union. I will certainly be negotiating in Jakarta to see if IMC can access some of this funding for our response efforts. Unfortunately though, government funding typically is not disseminated very rapidly, and the onus is on humanitarian agencies is to raise the money needed for the immediate rapid response assessment phase from private donors. While IMC does run over $40 million of programs every year (over $80 million if count in-kind donations), almost all of their money is tied up, legally restricted to existing projects.

I am worried that unless we raise the money needed immediately – at least $50,000 just for the Indonesia rapid response – we will not be able to be an effective force in alleviating suffering and saving lives in the coming weeks. We are also discussing sending teams quickly to Thailand and Sri Lanka, and this will only be possible with additional private funds.

If you have anything from a few extra dollars to even a few thousand extra dollars to spare, whatever your situation, I think this will one of those absolutely clear and unquestionable times in life when your donation is absolutely needed and will most certainly help to save lives."

18 November 2004

The woman presiding over national security on 9/11 - after she ignored specific warnings from the CIA, Richard Clark and Gary Hart among others about Al Queda flying planes into buildings on US soil - could be held personally responsible for the towers' collapse; the deaths, destruction and economic devastation 9/11 incurred; and the war in which the US is now headily pitched which apparently avenges that attack. However Condi's criminal negligence has been extremely profitable for the military-banking complex she represents. No wonder she has been slated to become secretary of state.

Stephen J. Hadley, who President Bush picked Tuesday to to replace Dr. Rice as
national security advisor, worked for both Cheney and
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz during President George H.W.
Bush's administration. He has argued for broadening the use of nuclear
weapons to include deterrence against "weapons of mass destruction." Can you imagine if they'd tried to destroy Iraq's "WMD" reserves with nukes?

17 November 2004

The Canadian Star newspaper has an interesting suggestion: charge Bush with war crimes next time he pops up. Jelena Pejic, an advisor in the legal division of the International Red Cross suggests Bush's acts of war certainly justify such claims in thisCrimes of War.Org article. Why?

1. Allied tribunals in Nuremburg and Tokyo after 1945 made it illegal for states to invade other countries. The UN also outlawed aggressive acts except those authorized by the UN Security Council.

2. The treatment of POWs at Abu Ghraib contravenes the Geneva Accord. No detainees, including 'unlawful combatants' may be tortured or subjected to 'outrages of personal dignity' and all have the right to a fair trial. Nor may detainees be deported: however apparently the US has taken select prisoners to Jordan and elsewhere outside of Iraq and there tortured them.

3. US forces in Guantanamo also tortured detainees and denied them fair trials.

Of course it's not only the big guns who are liable. Last Monday, the New York Times wrote that

...American soldiers might have
committed a war crime on Thursday when they sent fleeing Iraqi
civilians back into Falluja... Citing several articles of the Geneva
Conventions, the [human rights] experts said recognized laws of war require military
forces to protect civilians as refugees and forbid returning them to a
combat zone.

James Ross, senior
legal adviser to Human Rights Watch, said, "If that's what happened, it
would be a war crime." A stream of refugees, about 300 men,
women and children, were detained by American soldiers as they left
southern Falluja by car and on foot. The women and children were
allowed to proceed. The men were tested for any residues left by the
handling of explosives. All tested negative, but they were sent back.

...Because
the United States has refused to take part in the International
Criminal Court, it is unclear whether American troops could be held
accountable.

One can only hope however that not *just* soldiers be held accountable. CQ's beloved Human Rights Watch has documented a slew of potential crimes as regards the US in Iraq. Momentarily a Belgian federal prosecutor filed a suit in Belgian court last summer and accused not only Bush and Blair of crimes against humanity, but leveled accusations at Colin Powell, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, Condi Rice and Tommy Franks too. Seems the US didn't take kindly to that. Instead, we allegedly pressured Belgium by threatening to move NATO HQ from Brussels. Belgium caved and not only dropped the case, but repealed the law that allowed the case to be filed.

However, here at CQ we champion the idea that slim chances don't mean give up. In fact CQ's appropriated Dallas Cowgirls would alert you to this reason to cheer: Judicial Watch,

the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today [10/29] made available on its Internet site documents related to a multi-billion-dollar contract to restore Iraqi oil production awarded to Halliburton. The contracting process now is the subject of an FBI probe...the FBI is investigating whether procurement regulations were violated in the awarding of the five-year, $8 billion sole-source contract to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Sole-source contracts, which are awarded without a competitive bidding process, are rarely used by the federal government...Another document includes a handwritten note from Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers’ chief contracting officer, expressing her concerns about the KBR contract...

[CQ reminds you that we earlier referenced Ms. Bunny Greenhouse's objection to the Pentagon's dealings.]

...The Pentagon’s contracting process has been called into question, and documents Judicial Watch obtained show that at least one top Pentagon official was concerned about awarding a contract to Halliburton,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “We hope the FBI will get to the bottom of this matter, which affects each and every taxpayer.”

Bush
had learned in his only losing campaign -- a 1978 US House race in West
Texas, where he was labeled a liberal Eastern elitist -- that it was
political death to let your opponents define you first. So in the
ensuing years he had turned that same strategy against his foes. In the
case of Kerry, Bush readily agreed to a plan to define the senator as a
flip-flopper weak on defense.

...Kerry's own past suggested the
dangers of running as an antiwar candidate: As one of them, he suffered
a devastating defeat for a US House seat in 1972, the same year
President Nixon, despite Vietnam, won by a landslide...

Chapter
2: Swift Boaters take a stab at defining Kerry negatively, however just then the Abu
Ghraib scandal breaks and puts Bush back on the defensive. Should mean
something,

But
the Kerry campaign wasn't firing on all cylinders either. The prison
scandal, a spike in American casualties in Iraq, and the public
investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hurt Bush, but didn't
necessarily help Kerry. Still largely unknown outside Massachusetts,
the Democratic candidate was having trouble getting his message across.

This
might have been an ideal time to hit Bush hard. Instead, the candidate
proceeded on a deliberate course, crafted by media adviser Bob Shrum
and campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill, to raise money, broadcast policy
proposals. and advertise Kerry's life story.

Chapter 3:
Kerry realizes things are indeed amiss and sort of replaces campaign
manager Cahill with Paul Begala, late of Clinton and CNN. Except that
Cahill doesn''t much like the idea or markedly cooperate. Strategy
really starts to collapse: Edwards is picked, why? Because he really
seems to want the gig. Kerry also fumbles by choosing to hype His
Vietnam rather than attack Bush's Iraq.

On
Thursday, July 29, the last night of the convention, the man whose fame
was launched by denunciations of a war stepped onto the podium and gave
a military salute. "I'm John Kerry," the candidate told the cheering
delegates, "and I'm reporting for duty."

..As for selling Kerry
as a viable alternative: Only six lines of his acceptance speech were
devoted to his 20 years in the Senate, a fact that his GOP foes loudly
broadcast.

Chapter 4: The Slow Bloats hit him again, this time with a book and more ads. Though
Kerry wants to strike back, Cahill and other advisors don't want to
add fuel to the fire. No prison fiasco saves the day and when he does return the volley, it's already too late.

Epilogue: In spite of his preparing long and hard for the debate, and perhaps
even 'winning' Kerry changes neither people's minds nor the facts of his indecisiveness [or alternately, acknowledgement of complexity]: abortion and
Catholicism, gay daughter and gay marriage, Vietnam and Iraq. Yes, no,
yes and finally No. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

Questions are swirling around whether the election was conducted honestly or not. We need to know -- was it or wasn't it? If people were wrongly prevented from voting, or if legitimate votes
were mis-counted or not counted at all, we need to know so the
wrongdoers can be held accountable, and to help prevent this from
happening again. Members of Congress are demanding an investigation to answer this question. Join me in supporting their call, at:

11 November 2004

With regard to our recent post concerning election results in Ohio, we are happy to be able to quote that state's progressive Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, who writes:

Glitches in electronic voting in the Columbus area should move all legislatures to demand paper receipts for voting machines. Without such a paper trail, no true recount can ever be done. Note that no Diebold electronic voting machines were employed in Ohio.

Clear efforts at voter suppression and intimidation were well handled by the courts and election officials. Dirty tricks occurred across the state, including phony letters from Boards of Elections telling people that their registration through some Democratic activist groups were invalid and that Kerry voters were to report on Wednesday because of massive voter turnout. Phone calls to voters giving them erroneous polling information were also common. Attempts to subvert our right to fair elections must be investigated and prosecuted when possible.

...

The official tabulation of votes for Ohio will begin on Saturday and will include four categories not reflected in the unofficial count: provisional ballots, late absentee ballots, overseas military and overseas civilian. If the difference between George Bush and John Kerry is less than one quarter of one percent after the official tally is completed (about 16,000 votes) an automatic recount occurs under Ohio law. If the margin is greater than one quarter of one percent, a candidate can request a recount at an expense to the candidate of $10 per precinct. Because there are approximately 12,000 precincts in Ohio, the recount would cost about $120,000, before legal fees. A recount would entail a visual inspection of every punch card ballot.

I believe we must pursue every lead which raises questions about the integrity of the electoral process. Our work may not change the outcome, but it will demonstrate that beyond our commitment to our candidates, we have a higher commitment to our democracy.

The above cartogram shows red versus blue states drawn not relative to topography, but to number of inhabitants. Lifted from here.

07 November 2004

At least another Bush term bodes well for the prospect of engaging progressive politics. The win did not surprise CQ - we do our best not to underestimate the lengths to which dictators will go to ensure themselves another 20 years, much less 4, and well we know that half the USA is more or less both illiterate and Born Again. However the results did reignite our curiosity about the extent to which Diebold's electronic voting systems colored the result.

Some of the sources we expect to help sort out what occurred at the polls include Bev Harris of Blackbox who famously began her investigations into the duplicity afoot in evoting ages ago, as documented in this Wired article. Evoting Experts seem to be keeping close tabs on the situation. We also look forward to Votergate, a documentary about the fiasco due out soon, with a score by CQ idol and rock god Wayne Kramer of MC5. A New york attorney who spent a few days working on the election in Ohio, Ray Beckerman reported that he witnessed voters waiting

for as much as 10 hours, and their voting was concluded at about 3 am. The reason this occurred was that they had 1 voting station per 1000 voters, while the adjacent precinct had 1 voting station per 184. Both precincts were within the same county, and managed by the same county board of elections. The difference between them is that the privileged polling place was in a rural, solidly Republican, area, while the one with long lines was in the college town of Gambier, OH.

Touch screen voting machines in Youngstown, OH were registering "George W. Bush" when people pressed "John F. Kerry" ALL DAY LONG. This was reported immediately after the polls opened, and reported over and over again throughout the day, and yet the bogus machines were inexplicably kept in use THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

Clearly, Beckerman's precinct was anything but unique as far as vote skullduggery was concerned. As even the NY Times concedes, albeit cautiously:

An electronic voting machine in hotly contested Ohio added 3,893 votes to President Bush's tally in a suburban Columbus precinct, even though there are just 800 voters there. The error was discovered in preliminary vote counts from Tuesday night, and local officials say it would have been caught in any case and corrected in the final count now under way.
...
Preliminary counts show Mr. Bush won Ohio by about 137,000 votes out of roughly 5.5 million cast.
...
But all problems so far fall into a class described by Doug Chapin, director of the Election Reform Information Project, as "no big and lots of littles," with no discernible effect on the outcome.

Progressive linesman Daily Kos is having a ball with more numbers that all too enigmatically did not compute. These from Florida:

7,355,296 (2004) - 5,963,657 (2000) = 1,392,639 new voters (99% precincts counted, no provisionals or absentees). So, we have 1.39 million new voters, and Kerry loses by 376,923 votes? Thus, he lost an overwhelming majoirty of them, or he lost an overwhelming majority of regular voters - much, much more than Gore lost.
We have 77,197 fewer third party votes, but Kerry loses the vast majority of these? Exit polling numbers show that Kerry had more Hispanic and Cuban support than Gore did, and Kerry lost? Most exit polls in Florida showed Kerry leading, yet he loses by a massive 5%? All this after an incredibly failed presidency? After looking at these numbers, I can come to only one conclusion. The Diebold machines were rigged. There is no way provisional or absentee ballot are going to make up the 376,923 votes - unless a LOT of people were challenged in the urban areas and had to fill out provisionals. These Florida numbers just don't make sense.

Thom Hartmann at Common Dreams is on top of the case as well and yesterday published a piece with more evidence of hacking in Florida.

In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry. In Dixie County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush. The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the counties where optical scanners were used. Franklin County, 77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for Bush.